Unemployment began climbing in 2008, peaking at 8.3 percent in 2010

SANTA CLARITA - The August jobless rate for the city of Santa Clarita dropped from 6.6 percent in July – to 6.3 percent in August, according to the numbers released Friday by the state’s Employment Development Department.

The rate is also down from one year ago when it was 6.9 percent in August 2012, said Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Striplin.

“Historically the month of July has the highest unemployment of the year, and then August is stronger than July, and September is even stronger than August, so we are looking good,” Striplin said.

The August jobless rate is also the lowest rate in the city since December 2008 when the city’s jobless rate stood at 5.8 percent after beginning that year at 3.7 percent. By January 2009, one month later, the rate had jumped to 6.5 percent.

As new businesses open in Santa Clarita and the economy rebounds from the Great Recession, the city expects unemployment to continue to decline, Striplin said.

Unemployment numbers in Los Angeles County also declined to 10.2 percent in August, down from 10.8 percent in July. The number represents more than one-half million individuals still unemployed in the county.

Santa Clarita’s jobless rate is 4.5 percent lower than the county’s.

California’s jobless rate, however, rose to 8.9 percent. August was the second consecutive month when the rate increased in the state.

California’s jobless rate remains higher than the national average of 7.3 percent.

But the second largest over-the-month increases in employment occurred in California according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state added 29,100 jobs, the bureau reported.

Still, a jobless rate of 8.9 percent reflects more than 1.6 million people without jobs in the state.

Meanwhile, the U.S. unemployment rate showed little change. The jobless rate remained 7.3 percent, according to the bureau.

As for Santa Clarita’s decline, the jobless rate of 6.3 percent in August represents 5,700 people without jobs locally, per the state’s numbers.

However, amongst cities and counties with a labor force between 90,000 and 100,000 – Santa Clarita’s unemployment rate is nearly two percentage points lower than the next best performing region.

As for cities that are similar economically or size-wise – such as Pasadena, Burbank and Glendale – the city’s jobless rate is more than two percentage points lower than any of those cities. Although, the number of jobless in the city of Burbank is lower than Santa Clarita by 600 people.

And, while rates dropped slightly in the neighboring cities to the north – Palmdale and Lancaster – unemployment remains stubbornly high.

The jobless rate in Palmdale is 13.4 percent and it is 15.2 percent in Lancaster.